Newest New York laws help wineries, soldiers, overdose victims

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s newest laws will give the growing wine industry a boost, provide public workers on active military service more protection and give victims of drug overdoses a better chance to survive.

The state’s wine industry will get several of the measures it sought, but not the biggest: the sale of wine in grocery stores. Wineries will, however, be able to more easily open branch stores and mail bottles directly to customers nationwide. Farm wineries also will be allowed to provide what’s called “custom crush capability,” which will encourage smaller vineyards to enter the retail business.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it a “huge boost” for New York’s wine industry. “Reducing the regulatory burdens on farm wineries will allow them to continue to thrive as a key tourism, agriculture and economic engine for our state,” Cuomo said Friday.

The bill’s sponsors, Republican Sen. Catharine Young of Olean and Democratic Assemblyman Robin Schimminger of Erie and Niagara counties, said the industry needed the bill to cut bureaucracy to make the next step in growth.

Public workers called to active military service will have their civilian jobs held for them under another new law.

Freshmen Sen. Greg Ball, a Putnam County Republican, and Assemblyman Robert Castelli, a Westchester Republican, landed the bill. It was introduced by the military veterans after two Army sergeants were dropped from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll, Ball said.

“The last thing a deploying solider should have to worry about is whether he or she has a job when they come home,” Ball said.

Another bill would protect people from potential arrest when they call for medical help from the scene of an overdose, which advocates said is a leading cause of preventable death.

Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat, said the law will protect both those who overdose and those with them. “Most accidental drug or alcohol overdose deaths are preventable if emergency services are contacted immediately,” Gottfried said. “The number one reason people don’t call for emergency services or go to a hospital in the event of an overdose is fear of getting arrested.”

The Drug Policy Alliance says there is a national overdose crisis involving legal and illegal drugs. New York follows New Mexico and Washington state in enacting so-called Good Samaritan Laws.

Gottfried and Republican Sen. John DeFrancisco of Onondaga County sponsored the bill with unanimous support in the GOP-led Senate and strong support in the Democrat-led Assembly.

“It is uplifting to our elected officials come together to pass a law that will save thousands of lives in New York,” said Evan Goldstein, policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance advocacy group.